Port Washington man has ‘Christmas Vacation’ display to help St. Jude
Since 2018, a Port Washington resident has turned his yard into a mini movie set with his Christmas decorations, but the DIY props are more than a tribute to his favorite holiday film.
Among the makeshift diving board, pool and life-size actor cutouts from “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” is a red donation box to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
In 2018, Andy Jarr displayed a life-size image of Cousin Eddie, one of the movie’s main characters, “to raise a laugh” in the subdivision.
The following Christmas, Jarr recreated the film’s diving board scene with a cutout of Mary, along with a projector showing clips from the movie.
The projector plays six movie scenes totaling a roughly 20-minute runtime. Jarr edited the excerpts to accommodate for the film’s PG-13 rating.
Jarr said donations have totaled $1,222 this Christmas.
“They love it,” Jarr said of his neighbors. “They think it’s a good cause, they love the movie and like that it’s being raised for St. Jude.”
Decorations not for sale
When Jarr and his family traveled to Niagara Falls in 2019, they stopped in Medina, Ohio, to visit Castle Noel — a year-round Christmas museum that showcases movie memorabilia.
One of the museum’s movie-used artifacts was Cousin Eddie’s 1972 Ford Condor II RV, which Jarr made sure to photograph.
He brought the image to a vinyl wrapping company that printed it onto a plastic board. He bound the board to some spare aluminum pool fencing for wind resistance and placed it beside his garage.
Jarr said people often ask where he bought his decorations.
“These are not just some ordinary decorations that you would buy at Home Depot,” he said. “There’s definitely some thinking behind it.”
Despite Jarr’s dedication for displaying the themed decorations every year, he’s the only one in the household who’s seen the entire film.
“It’s PG-13 and my oldest kid is 10, so they’re not allowed to watch this type of movie,” he said.
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Eddie Morales can be reached at 414-223-5366 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @emoralesnews.
